Water Yin, Fire Yang
by brookgavin
Summary: this is my first story, and the summary is inside, but here's an insight so you don't get confused: Zuko and Iroh are in Ba Sing Se, but Aang and the gang are still on their way from the end of Serpent's Pass
1. Chapter 1

"They are water and fire, yin and yang; they complete each other, and destroy each other at the same time..."

Summer's end is but four months away, and Aang has mastered water and earth. That leaves only fire, the exact element that will be hardest to learn. Katara, Sokka, and Toph are all worried about him, but mostly the little earth bender. Let on, she has feelings for the Avatar.

Meanwhile, Zuko is separated from Iroh, his uncle having been found out and arrested in the Earth Kingdom capital for the 600 day Siege of Ba Sing Se. Now lost and alone with no place to go, can he find sanctuary with the Avatar and his friends, and mainly with the water bender?

Chapter 1

Katara stared at the fire burning beneath the pot of meal she was cooking for her friends and herself. She watched as the flames lashed upward at the underside of the pot, but didn't touch it. It was as if the pot was untouchable, and the flames pursued to go against it. The hues of red, orange, yellow, and white that made up the element bore into Katara's icy blue eyes. Those eyes that were the exact opposite. They were filled with every shade of blue you could think of, including teals and even some soft blue-greens, all coming together to make that perfect color of her element: water. As the flames bore deeper into her eyes, she saw a face appear in them. It was pale, the right side only visible in her vision. The image was blurry at first, but then a flash of bright gold lashed out at her, and the image became clear. She could see this face whole now; it was Zuko. She could only tell that by his scar; the horrifying thing was a sickly shade of red, and covered his left eye and ear, and the bottom edge lined his left cheekbone. The pointed ends of the scar were hidden now by his short grown hair. The last time she'd encountered him, it had look like a dark brown, but in this vision, it was black as midnight, just like it was the first time she'd seen him when his hair was up in a top knot.

'Fire,' she thought. It was her opposite; but it was also her equal…

"Katara!" a voice shouted, taking the girl from her vision. Her head snapped around and she found her brother, Sokka, looking at her, then at the pot with terror. The water bender's eyes grew with shock as she looked down at the burnt meal, sticking the inside of the pot. Her eyes wandered down to the flames again, hoping to see those eyes again, but the vision was gone; Zuko was gone…

Farther away, inside the walls of Ba Sing Se, Zuko was laying back on his bed, his eyes closed. He thought about the Avatar; the young air bender was quick witted and knew defenses with air more powerful than attacks with fire. Being raised among monks and the swift element had brought the young boy up fine, knowing when to defend, when to attack, and when to flee, but Zuko was just the opposite. He was weak with defenses and attacks, and put his energy and chi too much into those mechanisms. He'd been brought up under the eyes of an uncaring father, a horridly cruel sister, and no word of his mother.

"Mom…" the word escaped his lips so softly, he could barely tell if he'd really said it or not. He hadn't seen his mother in over eight years. She'd disappeared the night before his grandfather's funeral. Zuko was the only one who had figured it out; Ursa had somehow managed to get the word out of Azula that Ozai would have to kill his own son as punishment for asking his father to revoke Iroh's birthright as becoming fire lord since Iroh had lost his own son. Fire Lord Azulon had been a picture of health, strong as ever, and then he mysteriously died, and Ursa had mysteriously disappeared. Ozai had been too obsessed in becoming Fire Lord to link his missing wife with his dying father. Zuko thought that Ozai did not care about his father dying; just so long as it meant that he would become Fire Lord, Zuko's father didn't care about anything else. But Zuko was smarter than that, and he knew that his mother had killed his grandfather in the dead of night, whispered in his ear, and fled. Zuko hadn't heard any word of his mother since then.

Nobody knew that every time he and his crew used to stop in Earth Kingdom cities, while his uncle was off doing something unimportant, he would look around, hoping to see her face; the face of Ursa whom had killed the Fire Lord, just to save her son's life.

Azula hadn't cared that Ursa had disappeared; it meant that there was no mother to tell her to leave her brother alone and play nice; it meant there was only Ozai, who gave her praise in whatever she did, and words of hatred to her brother in whatever he did. Azula was the diamond in her father's eye, and Zuko was the rock yet to reveal his inner beauty. Ozai believed there was no diamond in Zuko, only dirt and dust.

"Lee," a soft voice said. Zuko shook his head and looked up. Iroh was holding out a cup of water towards him. "Thanks," the teenager mumbled, taking the cup. The old general sighed and walked out of the room. As Zuko went to take a drink from his cup, he stared into it. The sunlight reflecting off of it bore into his eyes. Though the liquid in the cup appeared to be clear, it was a mix of every color of blue you could imagine.

As Zuko stared into the liquid, he saw eyes; eyes that looked so familiar, but he couldn't define their owner. They looked to be every shade of blue you could imagine, just like the water. The vision was blurry, but then a whole face appeared in his cup.

It was the water bending girl that traveled with the Avatar; it was her face he was seeing. Her lips were turned up every so slightly in the corners, making a small smile on her face the miraculously lit it up.

Zuko found himself entranced by her. He looked into her eyes; they became the only image in the cup again. He could see as the hues and shades of blue, teal, and even some soft green-blues in them now. They all came together to make that one, perfect, clear, icy shade; just like the water he was staring into.

"Zuko, are you okay?" a voice asked, pulling the boy out of his trance. "I'm fine uncle," the fire bender replied faintly. He looked back down into his cup, hoping to see those eyes again, but alas, they were gone.

'Water,' he thought. It was his opposite, yet it was his equal.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Katara, what were you doing? You should've been paying attention to the pot!" Sokka shouted at his sister. "Well sorry if I got sidetracked!" she shouted back hotly. "What sidetracked you? We're in the middle of nowhere!" Sokka yelled. Katara's guard fell and she just looked away from her brother. "What was it?" he asked. "I thought I saw Zuko in the fire," Katara muttered. "You were daydreaming about Zuko?" Sokka asked, infuriated. "No!" his sister shouted, regaining her temper, "I was just hallucinating!" "Whatever, just clean out the pot and get breakfast started," Sokka said before walking off. Enraged, Kara gathered a thin sliver of water from her flask and whipped it out, hitting Sokka sharply in the back of the head. He cried out in pain and Katara smirked before cleaning out the pot and restarting the meal, this time, not getting distracted by mirages.

"You're doing great Aang," a young voice smiled. It was Toph, watching Aang practice his earth bending. The young Avatar, though having only been earth bending for a short while, had grown out in muscle from the lifting of heavy rocks. He was filling out in his clothes, but he was still lanky and light on his feet as an air bending master should be. "Thanks Toph," the Avatar smiled at his friend before continuing to bend.

Toph let her eyelids droop and she felt Aang's vibrations. She admitted only to herself that she did in fact have feelings for him. No one else knew this but herself because she could always hide it behind her tough exterior. Her eyelids opened when she felt vibrations coming straight at her, and fast. She moved quickly into a defensive stance and blew the large boulder that Aang had thrown at her into a million little pieces before it could knock her off her feet. "Nice try Aang, but you can't get me!" Toph laughed. The Avatar laughed with her before saying, "I think I'm going to practice some of my water bending." "You do that, Twinkle Toes," Toph sighed. She felt him walk off and then went to practice her own bending.

Katara was staring at the water in the steam she was bending. Although she was trying to concentrate on only the water, Zuko's face kept appearing in her mind, the exact same way it had earlier. It bothered her. Why was she thinking about him so much? He had been tracking her and her friends for the past year, and now, even though he was reduced to being a refuge, he was still out to get Aang. Nobody had told her that, but she knew it; she knew that Zuko would do anything to get his hands on the Avatar. But Katara would stop at nothing to cease the fire bender's quest.

Zuko stared up at the sky from his window, his uncle asleep in the bed only a yard away from him. The moon was full, lighting up the sky, making the stars around it look dim. He sighed; Iroh had told him about what he'd seen at the Spirit Oasis with Zhoa, Tui, and Princess Yue. 'You were lucky,' Zuko thought, staring hard at the moon, 'You got to escape, to leave this world and all of its horrors while the rest of us are still here, still suffering, still in pain.' A gentle breeze blew at the teenager's hair and he looked at his uncle before looking around; most of the lights in the area were out. He slowly left the apartment and went down to the fountain in the middle of a small town square. Zuko stared into the waters hard. He had a strange longing to see those eyes he'd seen earlier, but it seemed to more he tried to see them, the less they seemed to come.

That night, Zuko never saw those eyes. Only his own reflection…


End file.
